Parliamentarians Corner

Background

The African Parliamentarians’ network on development evaluation (APNODE) was established in March 2014 at the 7thAfrican Evaluation Association Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The network was initiated by the African parliamentarians, based on their recognition of the important function of evaluation in national decision-making. The network also acknowledges the crucial role of parliamentarians in ensuring evidence is used for greater development effectiveness and inclusion growth. The parliamentarians in the meeting signed a commitment to:

Raise awareness within their parliaments, and amongst parliamentary colleagues in other countries in African, about the importance of using evidence generated by evaluation for oversight, policy-making and national decision-making

Make use of evaluation evidence in their own engagement in parliamentary debate, oversight, legislation and representation, policy discussions and decision-making

Work towards the institutionalization of evaluation to support evidence based policy- making. This includes developing a policy on evaluation applicable to all levels of government; ensuring evaluation in their countries is responsive to social political, economic gender equality, minorities issues and environmental concerns, in support of inclusive growth and greater development effectiveness.

Work to bridge the gap between evaluators (as providers of impartial evidence) and parliamentarians (as user of evaluation evidence)

Parliamentarians meeting in Dublin, Ireland

A meeting “Towards a Global Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation” was held on 2 October 2014 at Dublin Convention Center, Dublin, Ireland.

The meeting was organized by EvalPartners, UN Women and International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation in partnership with European Evaluation Society, United Nations Evaluation Group, UNICEF, African Development Bank, South Asia Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation, African Parliamentarians’ Network on Development Evaluation and the Arab States Regional Parliamentarians’ Initiative.

The meeting brought together leaders of Parliamentarians Forums from South Asia, Africa and Arab States, members of national parliaments from other regions, leaders of regional VOPEs (Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation) and development partners. Meeting agenda included discussions about experiences of existing parliamentarians forums and emerging parliamentarian initiatives for evaluation; parliamentarians role and participation in International Year of Evaluation 2015 Global Event; and establishment of Global Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation. As expected that the meeting led to the following results:

Roadmap towards setting a Global Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation;

Stronger and broader connections between members of parliaments interested in evaluation.

The meeting took place at the venue of the European Evaluation Society (EES) conference, which was held from 1-3 October 2014.

Ten reasons for parliamentarians to engage in national evaluation policy process